Mastercard and Citigroup are working together to enable 24-hour international payments with debit cards, offering consumers and businesses another option for transacting business around the world.
Citigroup is the first global bank to adopt the service, called Mastercard Move, which will allow users to carry out transactions such as airline refunds, insurance payments and e-commerce purchases, the companies said in a statement on Thursday.
The partnership will allow “our customers to make international payments as if there were no borders, currencies or restrictions,” said Debopama Sen, head of payments at Citi Services, in the statement.
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Facilitating this type of transaction represents a significant growth opportunity for both Mastercard and its largest competitor, Visa, as commerce becomes increasingly global.
Mastercard also recently expanded its relationship with China’s Alipay, offering consumers the option to receive money directly into their digital wallets. Visa, in turn, has a partnership with Western Union, which allows customers to send money to Visa cards and bank accounts in more than 40 countries.
Citigroup recognizes this shift by enabling cross-border payments to digital wallets and other destinations. The debit card payment offering will be available to Citigroup customers in 65 countries, allowing them to carry out transactions, according to the statement.
Alan Marquard, head of transfer solutions at Mastercard, explained that the almost instantaneous nature of this type of transaction — which can occur in seconds or minutes — makes the service ideal for certain operations. According to him, “they want on-demand payments that can be received quickly and easily reused.” Mastercard has issued more than 3.4 billion debit, prepaid and credit cards worldwide as of June 30.
